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Scott, Colin --- "Enforcing Consumer Protection Laws" [2010] ELECD 183; in Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David (eds), "Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law

Editor(s): Howells, Geraint; Ramsay, Iain; Wihelmsson, Thomas; Kraft, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201287

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Enforcing Consumer Protection Laws

Author(s): Scott, Colin

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

18. Enforcing consumer protection laws
Colin Scott



1. Introduction
The implementation of consumer policy, and the vindication of consumer
rights, are each dependent on the existence of mechanisms to secure alignment
of the conduct of businesses with the applicable legal norms set through legis-
lation and/or judicial decision making. In this chapter, I adopt a broad concep-
tion of enforcement so as to support an analysis and comparison of the various
different mechanisms through which the entitlements and responsibilities
ascribed by consumer laws may be vindicated. There are competing theories
as to what consumer law should be seeking to achieve in respect of enforce-
ment. For some, it is about justice and the tackling of inequalities, whilst for
others, particularly within the law and economics approach, the law should be
concerned with promoting efficient solutions within market transactions, for
example by improving the flow of information on the basis of which
consumers make market decisions. Whilst the pursuit of these objectives is
sometimes harmonious, it is often revealing of tensions between contrasting
positions as to the very purposes of consumer law.
The traditional fields of law affecting consumers, such as tort and contract,
and the newer consumer law measures each have associated with them,
implicitly or explicitly, mechanisms for enforcing substantive legal rules. The
modes and styles of enforcement of consumer protection laws are highly
varied in different jurisdictions. Within many systems, the supplementing of
ordinary or special private law protections for consumers (in contract and/or
tort law) ...